_husbandry to
prosperity_. Undertaken this work _must_ be, and _performed too_; but
whether we shall see this until the estates have passed away from the
_present race_ of landlords, is a question which must be referred to
_time_.

76. Surely we may hope, that, when the American farmers shall see this
little Essay, they will begin seriously to think of leaving off the use of
the liver-burning and palsy-producing _spirits_. Their _climate_, indeed,
is something: _extremely hot_ in one part of the year, and _extremely
cold_ in the other part of it. Nevertheless, they may have, and do have,
very good beer if they will. _Negligence_ is the greatest impediment in
their way. I like the Americans very much; and that, if there were no
other, would be a reason for my not hiding their faults.

No. III.

MAKING BREAD.

77. Little time need be spent in dwelling on the necessity of _this_
article to all families; though, on account of the modern custom of using
_potatoes_ to supply the place of _bread_, it seems necessary to say a few
words here on the subject, which, in another work I have so amply, and, I
think, so triumphantly discussed. I am the more disposed to revive the
subject for a moment, in this place, from having read, in the evidence
recently given before the Agricultural Committee, that many labourers,
especially in the West of England, use potatoes _instead_ of bread to a
very great extent. And I find, from the same evidence, that it is the
custom to allot to labourers "_a potatoe ground_" in part payment of their
wages! This has a tendency to bring English labourers down to the state of
the Irish, whose mode of living, as to food, is but one remove from that
of the pig, and of the ill-fed pig too.

78. I was, in reading the above-mentioned Evidence, glad to find, that
Mr. EDWARD WAKEFIELD, the best informed and most candid of all the
witnesses, gave it as his opinion, that the increase which had taken place
in the cultivation of potatoes was "_injurious to the country_;" an
opinion which must, I think, be adopted by every one who takes the trouble
to reflect a little upon the subject. For leaving out of the question the
slovenly and beastly habits engendered amongst the labouring classes by
constantly lifting their principal food at once out of the earth to their
mouths, by eating without the necessity of any implements other than the
hands and the teeth, and by dispensing with everything requiring skill